VCU fades late in 72-64 loss at No. 13 Alabama (AP)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ? Bradford Burgess couldn't take solace from the fact that VCU hung in there with No. 13 Alabama and his former coach for 36 minutes.

The final four minutes were what bothered him after the Rams fell 72-64 to the unbeaten Crimson Tide and Anthony Grant on Sunday night.

"I'm not happy because we lost," said Burgess, who was recruited to VCU by Grant. "I don't really believe much in moral victories. We had an opportunity and we let it slip away."

Not before they left an impression on Grant, who said VCU "may be the best 3-3 team in the country, just based on what they're capable of."

JaMychal Green scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half and had 14 rebounds, and Tony Mitchell scored 13 to lead the Tide. VCU coach Shaka Smart wasn't surprised by their performances.

"I tried to explain to our guys the tape doesn't really do justice to how athletic those guys are and how active they are," said Smart, who worked with both Tide players with USA Basketball over the summer. "Green was a monster tonight. He was terrific."

Green had missed the previous game with a hip bruise but helped the Crimson Tide move to 7-0 for the first time since 2006-07. Mitchell sprained his right ankle in the previous game.

The Tide trailed VCU (3-3) by as many as six points in the second half but closed the game on a 12-5 run and allowed only one basket over the final 4 minutes.

"During the last four or five minutes of the game, our guys really stepped it up on the defensive end," Grant said.

Burgess hit three 3-pointers in the second half and scored 18 points to lead VCU, which also got 10 points from both Rob Brandenburg and Juvon te Reddic.

"Alabama deserved to win tonight," Smart said. "They played really hard and caused us some issues, particularly in the second half. They blocked six shots, but they really changed a lot more shots."

Grant led VCU to 76 wins from 2006-09 before taking over at Alabama. Smart, his successor, took the Rams even farther with a Final Four run last season, but his team's stuck at .500 despite coming off wins in two straight games against Western Kentucky.

Both teams turned up the full-court pressure at times and bank on stingy defenses that keep them going even when their shots aren't falling.

"It pretty much was like looking in the mirror and playing ourselves," Green said. "They're a very disruptive team. We couldn't run our offense the first half but the second half we executed better and just had more focus.

Burgess is the only Grant recruit who saw action for the Rams. The two shared a quick hug and chat after the game.

"He just said he loved me," Burgess said. "I told him I loved him back."

Alabama made 13 of 21 shots (62 percent) in the second half after trailing at halftime for the first time this season, 33-32. The Tide outscored VCU 40-24 in the paint, which helped overcome 1-of-11 shooting from 3-point range.

The Tide took a 66-60 lead with 2:30 left on an 8-0 run finished off by two freshmen.

Trevor Lacey drove the floor for a layup after Green's blocked shot and Rodney Cooper followed with another basket for Alabama's biggest lead to that point.

Brandenburg hit two free throws to end the string. Mitchell then made 3 of 4 free throws to stretch the lead to 69-62 with 1:32 left.

The Tide went 6 of 8 from the line over the final 1:54.

Mitchell hurt his ankle early in the previous game and limped off the court 7 minutes into the game after scoring six of the Tide's first 10 points. Green, who was 8 of 12 from the field, also spent a few minutes in the locker room with a bruised left elbow in the first half.

It didn't stop them from scoring nearly half of the Tide's points.

VCU hit 40 percent from the field but still managed to score the most points of any Alabama opponent this season.

"The second half was what killed us," Reddic said. "The first half we fought, but just to fight in the first half is not good enough. You've got to fight for the entire 40 minutes."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkc_t25_vcu

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Colombia: Rebels execute 4 captives; 1 found alive (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia ? Colombia's main rebel group executed four of its longest-held captives during combat Saturday between guerrillas and soldiers searching for the men, the government said.

A fifth captive fled into the jungle and survived.

President Juan Manuel Santos called the killing of a soldier and three police officers "a crime against humanity" and dismissed any suggestions that Colombia's armed forces might be responsible.

"They were held hostage for between 12 and 13 years and wound up cruelly murdered," Santos said.

A senior Defense Ministry official told The Associated Press that government troops were not attempting to rescue the captives but rather trying to locate them based on intelligence indicating the rebels were holding them in the area. The official agreed to discuss the operation only if granted anonymity.

Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon initially announced the deaths, then said hours later that a fifth rebel prisoner, police Sgt. Luis Alberto Erazo, had survived. Erazo, 48, had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC for nearly 12 years.

Pinzon said troops had been in the area for 45 days chasing rebels and had intelligence the guerrillas might be holding police and soldiers as captives. No official explained how far the captives were being held from the area of combat. Pinzon did not take questions from reporters.

All four men were killed execution-style, three with shots to the head and one with two shots to the back, Santos told a community meeting in central Colombia.

Pinzon said the bodies were found together, with chains near them.

He said Erazo fled into the jungle chased by three rebels who threw grenades, wounding him slightly in the face. Erazo emerged from hiding after dusk when he heard chain saws cutting a clearing so helicopters could land, Pinzon added.

It is standing policy of the FARC to kill its prisoners to prevent their rescue. And the rebels frequently chain their captives.

The sister of one of the victims, 34-year-old police Maj. Elkin Hernandez, was angry with the government.

"The FARC are murderers for the manner in which they killed them, and the government is equally a murderer. They had the possibility to get them out of there, and they didn't," Margarita Hernandez told the AP.

Former Sen. Luis Eladio Perez, who was freed by the FARC in February 2008 after six years of captivity, told the AP he believed the four died in a failed rescue.

The bodies were found about 10 a.m. in the municipality of Solano in the southern state of Caqueta. Among them was the longest-held rebel captive, army Sgt. Maj. Jose Libio Martinez. He was seized by rebels Dec. 21, 1997, in an attack on a lonely southern mountain outpost called Patascoy.

The killings left the FARC in possession of about 16 security force members, which they consider to give them political leverage.

Martinez's son, who was in his mother's womb when his father was captured, pleaded with the FARC via Caracol radio to free them.

"We don't want any more dead. We don't want anymore children like me crying for their fathers," Johan Steven Martinez said.

The FARC took up arms in 1964 and are Latin America's last remaining rebel army. They have suffered a series of military setbacks and record desertions in recent years, crowned by the Nov. 4 combat death of their leader, Alfonso Cano.

His successor, Timoleon Jimenez, was named the following day and few analysts believe defeat is imminent for the rebels, who draw their strength from landless peasants in a country where land ownership is concentrated in a few hands. The FARC are believed to comprise about 9,000 fighters.

The drug trafficking-funded rebels have periodically freed security force members and politicians as goodwill gestures, stepping up releases in early 2007 with the intercession of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But Santos, who was defense minister for four years before winning the presidency, has publicly refused to entertain peace overtures, saying the rebels must first show themselves willing by freeing all captives.

Analyst Ariel Avila of the Nuevo Arco Iris think tank said Saturday that the killings will give the government justification not to negotiate. "But the government won't get out of this without blame," he added.

On several occasions, the FARC has slain hostages when under military pressure, real or perceived.

In June 2007, FARC fighters killed 11 regional lawmakers they had kidnapped five years earlier, apparently under the mistaken belief they were under attack by government forces.

In 2003, rebels killed 10 captives, including a former defense minister and governor, during an attempted rescue when they heard approaching military helicopters.

The FARC suffered a major embarrassment in July 2008 when elite Colombian troops posing as international humanitarian workers rescued former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors and 11 others in a daring ruse.

Reached by the AP via email about the deaths of four men with whom she had for a time shared captivity, Betancourt said: "The truth is that the news has hit me hard. I'm in pain and don't wish to make any (further) comment."

Betancourt last year published "Even Silence Has An End," an eloquent recounting of her more than six years in captivity.

___

Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera, Camilo Hernandez and Cesar Garcia contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_colombia_rebels

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